SOMERSET — While they are not yet of legal voting age, students at Somerset Berkley Regional High School have made it known who they support for president and other offices through a mock election that was held last week.

Student Thomas Franco said he supported re-electing President Barack Obama. He said the president's plan has not made significant gains for the economy yet, but thought it would eventually be successful.

"I figured he has the past experience of being a president, so he understands the weight of the world being on his shoulders," Franco said.

Franco said he thinks the economy and the national debt are the most important issues for the election.

Student Connor Fortier said he supported Mitt Romney for president.

"I feel like, as a nation, we should make our own decisions and the government shouldn't be part of our daily lives, like with Medicare and school vouchures," Fortier said.

Fortier said that he thought Mr. Romney's experience in the business world and with running the Olympics would help him with the job of president.

"He's a smart guy," Fortier said. "That's why he has so much money. He knows exactly what we should do with our money to cut the deficit."

Student Michael Valley said he supported Mr. Romney for president. He said he liked Mr. Romney's proposed tax cuts. Valley said he also liked Mr. Romney's positions on foreign policy. While Republicans are not for war, Valley said they generally are big supporters of the military. He said Mr. Romney would not be afraid to confront problems in Syria.

"He would also strengthen the alliance with Israel because Obama has kind of backed away from them," Valley said.

Valley said the national debt is the most important issue for the election and then fixing the infrastructure of the country.

Alice Ferris, the social studies content coordinator at the high school, said that students in her class did charts, comparing the positions of the different candidates on energy, foreign policy, the economy and education. The students researched the platforms of candidates and did a self reflection on whether they would agree or disagree with them on certain issues.

"In addition to that, we've also discussed civic participation and the democratic process of the United States in voting," Ms. Ferris said.

Ms. Ferris said many of the students were interested in the education issue because they know it will affect them and also in the economy because of the impact on jobs. She said they also studied the similarities in the political parties in the U.S. senate election and race for congressman.

"They are trying to understand the partisanship and bipartisanship of politics," Ms. Ferris said. "It's an introduction."

Other social studies teachers at the high school who participated in the mock election with their students were Christine Alves, Matthew Dionne, Stephanie Freitas, Nick Freitas and Caleigh Greenwell.

Mrs. Freitas said the students did seem really interested in the election.

"A lot of students have been paying a lot of attention to the ads and the debates, so there has been a lot of lively discussion that was informed," Mrs. Freitas said. "I was impressed."

Pearson Education, the organization that ran the national mock election, provided information to the high school on the positions of the presidential candidates on different issues. Different organizations from around the country sponsored high schools in their area for the mock election. Somerset Berkley Regional High School was provided with curriculum materials for the activity by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The local high school students voted electronically.

Mrs. Freitas, who teaches a class on U.S. history from the reconstruction period to the present, said the Obama campaign had approved the information on the positions of the candidates that was given to the schools and the Romney campaign was reviewing it, which she said gave it some validity. She said students asked questions about the candidates.

Mrs. Fteitas said the high interest the students seemed to have in the election is important in addressing voter apathy. She said the mock election will encourage them to participate in real elections in the future.

In the class of Mr. Dionne, the students not only participated in the mock election, but also discussed the referendum questions on the Massachusetts ballot. The students voted on the three questions in the class and approved of all of them, which included questions about providing manufacturing information about cars to repair shops, assisted suicide and the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Mr. Dionne discussed with the students why they voted the way they did and was going to compare the actual state results with how the students voted.

Mr. Dionne had his students research the candidates for homework and then they came to class and had a debate. The class created an undecided group of voters who asked questions to the candidates. He said that after the students watched the debates on television, they came into school and had intelligent conversations with excellent points to make about the election.

"Some of the classes got very heated, because some of the kids were very passionate about their beliefs," Mr. Dionne said.

Mr. Freitas, who teaches contemporary issues in American society at the high school, had his students go on the web site procon.org before voting in the mock election. The students answered about 100 questions on the web site which then determined who they would vote for, based on that information.

"It was really interesting because some kids who had preconceived notions about who their candidate was, changed," Mr. Freitas said.

Mr. Freitas said the students seemed interested in the election through the whole political season. He said many of them watched the debates on television and analyzed how the candidates approached the debates and who did better in them.

Student Molly Medeiros said she voted for President Obama in the mock election. She said she liked that the president supports gay marriage because she believes everyone should have the same rights. She also said she learned a lot about the election from her brother, who has done an internship with the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, and her father.

"I feel like a lot of people support Obama because their families do," Medeiros said. "I support Obama because of the research I've done and the debates I've watched. I think that a lot of people have misjudgements about him. Because he came in under utter economic turmoil, the amount of time that he has had to fix the problems is only about half the time that it took to do the damage."